Executive Producer Ricki Lake and Filmmaker Abby Epstein follow their landmark documentary, The Business of Being Born, with an all-new, four part DVD series that continues their provocative and entertaining exploration of the modern maternity care system. More Business of Being Born, available on October 18, 2011, offers a practical look at birthing options as well as poignant celebrity birth stories from stars including Alanis Morissette, Gisele Bundchen, Christy Turlington-Burns, Cindy Crawford, Molly Ringwald, Ali Larter, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and Melissa Joan Hart.
Inspired by their own unique birth experiences, Ricki and Abby teamed up in 2007 to provide a nation of mothers-to-be with insight into the process of childbirth and the various options available when preparing for life’s most special event. More Business of Being Born will be presented in four parts, each containing subject matters ranging from doulas and midwives to celebrity birth stories – all developed with the goal of empowering women by providing the necessary information to make the best birth decisions possible.
Ricki and Abby are proud to announce that they are using Kickstarter, the world’s largest crowd-based fundraising platform, to raise money for the completion and marketing of this upcoming, self-released documentary. Link to the Kickstarter directly at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/211982196/more-business-of-being-born-ricki-lake-and-abby-ep
(At the time of this post, they had reached $62,000 of their $100, 000 goal, with a deadline of July 14th.) There are some very cool rewards depending on your level of contribution, including your name in the credits, signed DVD’s, books, t-shirts, phone call with Ricki, Skype session with Ricki and Abby, two tickets to a private screening of the film with Ricki and Abby, and more!
“Every dollar raised through this Kickstarter campaign will help us pay for the release of the film,” says filmmaker Abby Epstein. “More important, however, is that all of the money contributed to the campaign helps spread the word about the various options expectant women have when planning their births.” Simply, by pre-ordering your DVDs, you can be part of the movement.
For more information, click here to check out Ricki’s article for The Huffngton Post.
If you’ve been around since last summer when I wrote “In Praise of Epidurals” for Ingenue Mom’s week of birth stories, then you know that I don’t take huge issue with what Ricki calls the “highly medicalized climate of hospital births” (also important to note that I’m in Canada, and she’s in the States). However, I’m definitely all on board with “honouring and empowering mothers” and enabling them to choose birth options that work for them.
The movie in 2007 was really great. I look forward to the new one. It is conflicting though because we are medicalized and though it may be unneccessary in some instances it has been life-saving in many others. In a way I would rather (and did choose) to medicalize a delivery of my children in order to ensure the safest delivery possible. I watched the movie much the same as I watch the Olympics: boy wouldn't it be wonderful to have that experience. I won't ever be in the Olympics, and I won't ever have a natural vaginal delivery. There is a lot of merit in empowering a woman to follow her intuition, listen to her body and make the best decision for herself. I think giving the woman the choice allows for the dismissal of guilt!